Public holidays in United States 2026

The United States has 10 nationwide public holidays in 2026. That count covers federal holidays only: individual states, and often employers within them, add their own days on top, so plenty of residents end up with more than 10 days off. Anyone comparing this figure across countries should treat it as a floor, not a ceiling.

The shape of the year

The year opens with New Year’s Day on Thursday 1 January 2026 and closes with Christmas Day on Friday 25 December 2026, so the holiday calendar spans almost the full twelve months. The gaps between holidays are uneven. The longest stretch without one runs 98 days, from Presidents Day to Memorial Day - more than three months where the calendar offers no nationwide break at all. Anyone planning time off around that gap needs to use annual leave rather than wait for a holiday to land.

Weekday luck in 2026

Where a holiday falls in the week matters as much as how many there are. In 2026, four of the ten fall on a Monday, giving a natural long weekend without anyone having to ask for it, and three fall on a Friday, which does the same in reverse. None fall on a weekend this year, so there’s no case of a holiday needing to be moved or simply lost - a problem that does arise in other years, since a public holiday landing on a Saturday or Sunday is often a day off nobody actually gets, unless local rules shift it to the nearest weekday. Whether that happens, and how, varies by country and even by employer, so it’s worth checking rather than assuming.

Figures are drawn from the Nager.Date open holiday dataset, current as of this page’s review. Governments can and do adjust holiday dates after publication, so treat the calendar below as a strong reference rather than a permanent fixture.